Tag Archives: commercial

Electricity rules the modern life–we can’t get away from it! It’s a really interesting facet of our lives. Read on for some interesting facts about electricity!

Just a single spark of static electricity can measure up to 3,000 volts!

You know the ocean is a scary place…watch out for electric eels which use strong electric shocks up to 500 volts for hunting and self-defense.

Birds love power lines, but they don’t get cooked up there–how?? Birds aren’t in danger of getting shocked as long as they remain on one power line. As soon as they touch another with a wing or foot, a circuit is created which allows electricity to flow through the body, ending in electrocution and a fried bird.

How does coal work? As the biggest source of energy in the world, the steam created from burning coal is used to spin turbines attached to generators.

You can’t see it with the naked eye, but lightning flows from the ground to the cloud. We see the part where the charge goes from the ground back up into the cloud. You can find very interesting slow-motion videos of this awesome natural occurance.

Winter is a tough time for anyone with long luscious locks or prone to being skittish, thanks to static electricity. It’s created when electrons from one object jump to another object. Maybe now that you know, you won’t jump when you get shocked!

If you thought turning your TV off is saving energy, think again! About 75% of electricity is used while products in the home are turned off. Desktops idle at 80 watts, while laptops idle at 20 watts. It might surprise you, but idle power uses more electricity than all of the solar panels in the U.S. combined!

What’s your guess for the most efficient appliance in your kitchen? If you guessed microwave, you’re correct! It uses 1/3 of the wattage of most ovens.

Electricity: Additions, Modifications & Indoor/Outdoor Lighting

Fowler and Sons, Inc. provides expert commercial electrical services to meet the needs of a various size companies. We can provide consultations for the best lighting for your business as well as provide full and custom installation of lights.

OUR SOLUTIONS INCLUDE:

All Electrical Wiring for Indoor Lighting

Consultation on Best Lights for Business

Full and Custom Installation of Lights

Service Indoor Lighting

Certified for All Health Department Issues for Lighting

Upfit Commercial Kitchens

Complete Service Change Outs

Installation of New Equipment

Interlock/Control Wiring

Interlock AAON Units

Smart $aver Energy Incentives Program

With Duke Energy’s Smart $aver® Incentive program, businesses can receive cash for installing high-efficiency lighting, HVAC, pumps and other qualifying equipment. The use of energy-efficient equipment enables your business to improve its bottom line by reducing energy consumption. And Smart $aver incentives help lower the costs associated with upgrades.

By taking advantage of the Smart $aver program you can:

Help buy down the incremental cost difference between standard and energy-efficient equipment.

Invest in high-efficiency equipment without exceeding annual budgets.

Contribute to a greener environment by reducing the amount of natural resources needed to keep your business running.

Happy First Day of Spring!

Surely you’ve heard us talk in every manner about “preventative maintenance.” Of course, there’s all kinds of ways to practice preventative maintenance, but it tends to be thrown around in a manner that assumes you know exactly what you need to be doing. Since spring is upon us with warmer weather, your HVAC could perhaps use some tuning up.

Here’s your first major tip: Maintenance is best done in the spring and fall for a system that both heats and cools. Perfect timing!

With outdoor units, there are several simple inspections that can be done leading up to the spring season including inspecting:

Unit for refrigerant level. Adjust if necessary.

Compressor and tubing for damage.

Coil & cabinet. May require cleaning.

Inside cabinet for dirt, leaves, and debris.

Fan motor and blades that may require lubrication.

Control box, controls, accessories, wiring, and connections. Check for wear or damage.

Opening a Restaurant is Easy! Right?

We’ve all been out on a Friday night to enjoy a relaxing dinner, letting someone else cook and clean up after us. It seems like a well-oiled machine, and sometimes the experience is so good that we wonder how hard it could actually be to open and maintain a functional restaurant. The answer to that is…you really don’t want to think about it unless you have a substantial supply of migraine medicine on hand. Since you’re dealing with food and people and the general public, the number of regulations, rules, inspections, and precautionary measures that must be considered and strictly enforced is dizzying.

Here’s a pretty comprehensive list of dates and vendors that must be considered before opening a restaurant (view here). That’s a huge list of tasks that need to be tackled. But really, that’s just the beginning.

What about the supplies you need for storage and food preparation? You can see that list right here.

Of course we don’t want just anyone handling our food. If we don’t prepare it ourselves, it would be very difficult to trust someone else to properly handle it if there weren’t regulations in place. You can see those over here.

As you can see, there is an overhaul of processes required to successfully open and maintain a restaurant, and this is just a glimpse. This is where Fowler and Sons come in! Not only do we offer several services necessary to opening your business (refrigeration, electrical, plumbing, backflow, maintenance, HVAC), but we also provide this one really helpful, crucial service: health department punch list inspections. Before your restaurant is inspected, let us look it over to determine what might be missing from the punch list. Some examples of the requests made by the health department include:

Provide calibrated ambient air thermometers for all individual units

Refinish floor mixer vase to meet original MFG OEM specs

Replace produce sink pitted faucet assembly handles

Repair leaking produce sink faucet

Provide separate water supply line for chemical feeder system at mop pit

One Company Does It All

Fowler and Sons is one of the only commercial service companies in the Raleigh area that can handle every aspect of health department inspection upgrades. We also handle installation, maintenance, and repairs of several necessary services including refrigeration, electrical, plumbing, and more. Fowler and Sons will come to your location equipped with all of the necessary materials and tools to complete the job in a timely manner. We have professionally serviced:

Restaurants

Food trucks

Breweries

Grocery stores

Convenience stores

Quick service restaurants

There’s no need to call several technicians or specialized companies to handle each task. Just call one company – Fowler and Sons.

Spring has arrived after a long Winter this year. March 20th marks the first day of Spring and what better way to begin your Spring cleaning and maintenance chores than with a HVAC check-up by Fowler and Sons.

Preventative maintenance goes a long way to saving you money in the long run. If you stay on top of problems as they occur, or catch them before they cause any issues, you are preventing equipment loss and monetary set-backs.

In the summertime, with an average high well into the 90′s in the Triangle area, customers will sometimes stop into stores to seek relief from the oppressive heat outdoors. If your place of business hasn’t taken the time to maintain or repair a faulty AC unit, these potential customers will likely leave just as quickly as they came.

More and more the term “Green” seems to be creeping its way into the commercial trends. Customers are the main drive behind the movement, as they seek out economically conscious establishments to lay their hat. Giving your customers a greener scene could be one of the best business practices you could adopt! On average, energy bills represent 30% of a buildings annual budget. Recently, energy expenditures have been increasing at a rate of 6-9% every year, and that rate could go up. The following tips can save your business money and help protect you from the staggering increase in energy costs:

1. Manage Your Equipment - Your cooking equipment are some of the “fat cats” of your business. Establish when your appliances have little to no use throughout the day, many pieces of cooking equipment can be reheated quickly to avoid any unnecessary energy usage. Avoid maintaining unused equipment for long stretches of time when not in use.